


Black Out

by womeninthesequel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/womeninthesequel/pseuds/womeninthesequel
Summary: Lily and Sirius are on a surveillance mission for the Order when the heat goes out.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 23
Kudos: 42





	Black Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thejilyship](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejilyship/gifts).



If Lily got to decide where she spent the night before her birthday, it would not have been here.

Ideally, she would be surrounded by friendly faces. Maybe they would be squabbling over the rules of a board game or debating take away options. They could make grand plans to ring in her birthday at midnight but get no further than the cake tucked away in their kitchen. 

If everyone else was busy, she would also be content with curling against James. When he inevitably teased her about turning a year older before him, she could put the cold tip of her nose against his neck and giggle when he yelped. 

She could be spending the evening with her friends or her fiancé in their flat. She could be struggling through learning to knit or burning something new in their oven. She could finally hang those photographs they had printed a few months ago or read the book that still sat forgotten on her nightstand. Really, if she had been given the choice, Lily would be doing a hundred different things before she would be here.

At least in all of those scenarios, she’d be warm.

Lily shivered, tucking her mitten-covered hands against her side and under her arms. She had floated the idea of a pocket fire or other magical means of keeping them warm while they watched the possibly abandoned building that may have once held Death Eaters, but Moody shot them all down.

_“Do you want to get killed because you couldn’t stand a little cold?”_ she heard him barking in her mind. _“Nothing that can be seen, Evans! Constant vigilance!”_

With a faint pop, the barely functioning heating unit fell silent. 

A pair of arms wrapped around her. On instinct, Lily stiffened, her fingers twitching toward the wand in her pocket. The hushed, “Evans!” that came a second later made her shoulders fall, though a shiver went through her another beat later. 

“What?” she said a little crossly.

“The heat’s out.”

She let out a breath that puffed in front of her face. “I gathered that, Black.”

“Well, Evans...” Sirius answered, resting his chin on her shoulder. “It’s cold. Do you know what that means?”

She made herself stare at the building across the street rather than looking at Sirius. She didn’t flinch when he slipped his hands into the pockets of her coat. “What does that mean, Sirius?”

“We need to cuddle to survive.”

Lily didn’t need to look at him to know he was grinning. 

“I’m nearly a married woman,” Lily replied. She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers. Even with her mittens covering it, they both knew about the stone on her left hand. The thought of it made her smile, despite the circumstances. “To your best friend, might I add.”

“Of course, I know that,” Sirius agreed easily. “Imagine how he’ll react when he finds out you let his best mate freeze to death. I’m too young to die, Evans.”

“I’m the one shivering.”

“I’ve been keeping up a brave front for your benefit,” he said grandly. “We have to keep each other from freezing. For Prongs.” 

“For James,” Lily repeated. 

Sirius nodded, his aristocratic chin digging into her collarbone.

“Well, budge over,” Lily said, shoving his side with her elbow. “If we’re going to cuddle, we should at least be comfortable.” 

Sirius laughed. Without too much struggle, they tangled their limbs in a way that protected them from any drafts and reminded her of the way they would all fall onto the couch after a long day at Hogwarts. By June, they could all communicate through pointed looks and reassuring hand squeezes. Part of knowing that they were going into the same battle meant preparing together.

Admittedly, this did make her feel a little warmer.

A soft whirl started. A few seconds later, a rattle and click confirmed that the heating unit reconnected to its power source. The building they were supposed to be watching continued to sit silently, dark and apparently deserted. 

“I guess we made it through,” Lily said, though she didn’t move. “Glad we were there for each other in our thirty seconds of need.”

“Always will be.”

“Should we…”

“Nah,” Sirius said, shifting to rest his head comfortably against her shoulder. “You’re stuck with me, Evans.”

Maybe a night with one of her best friends wasn’t the worst way to spend the hours before her birthday. It was a little cold, but they had been through worse. They all knew that they couldn’t know what else lay ahead of them.

Tomorrow, she could kiss James and laugh at Sirius when he ate too much cake. Tonight, she could be thankful that when she had to keep watch for the Order, she had good people around her. They weren’t related by blood, but wasn’t the point of this war to show that blood wasn’t the most important bond?

“Yeah,” Lily agreed, laying her head against his. “Until the very end.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @women-inthe-sequel!


End file.
